…..as Gov Zulum promises immediate payment By Gbenga Akingbule
Over 80 pensioners storm the streets of Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital on Saturday to protest the non payment of their gratuity and pensions by the state government.
The elderly retired workers despised the scorching sun of Maiduguri, caused traffic gridlock as they marched to the Borno State Government House to seek the attention of the governor .
Chairman of the state pensioners, Mohammed Abdullahi said over 700 genuine pensioners including the deceased have been denied payment for the 3 years and in some cases, four years.
“Our situation is critical, we need the government to do the needful by paying us our pensions. Our members are dying and our children can no longer go to school” Abdullahi said .
Mr Abdullahi revealed that their situation got worsened by the biometric data capturing put in place by the former governor, and now serving Senator Kashim Shettima which he said has halted the payment of many genuine pensioners.
He stated that over 100 genuine pensioners have died while their pensions was halted by the biometric data capturing excercise.
“The state governor had promised to come and address us in the last 10 days but we waited in vain. We lost three of our members just yesterday while over 100 have died since our payment was halted by the state government in the last three years. ” Abdullahi said.
But this did not go down well with the state governor, Prof Babagana Zulum as he wasted no time to storm out of the government to address the protesters.
The governor was visibly unhappy with protesters whom he thought should be commending the state governments for the prompt payment of their entitlements and fishing out the bad eggs amongst them.
Prof Zulum told the protesters that the state governments can not and would not deliberately deny any genuine pensioner their entitlements.
Governor Zulum speaking to reporters shortly after addressing the protesters.
“I have paid over N3 Billion as pension since I became governor but for those that are yet to receive their payments, there are certain government procedures that must be followed. ” Prof Zulum said .
The governor explained that the government is duty bound to sanitize the pension system and allow for only genuine pensioners to get their entitlements.
He said issues related to the date of employment and mode of employment must be accetained to know and pay the authentic workers who have laboured tirelessly for the state.
“It’s not all their demands that are genuine, some deceased pensioners get paid in the past for over 10 years while the time stipulated by law is only 5 years after the demise of a pensioner.
“We are sanitizing this system and I have assured the protesters that government will look into their demand and ensure that only genue pensioners gets their entitlements.” Gov Zulum said .
Meanwhile , it was all praises and smiles on the faces of the protesters as the governor orderd that the sum of N3 million be given to them as their transport allowance .
